I see these homepages out there with only a logo, maybe one or two keyword phrases (perhaps in the slogan), and "ENTER HERE" which leads to the rest of the content. How do you go about SEO-ing these sites? Alot of them are doing well. Also alot of flash sites are similar to what I am describing above. In general do these sites rank well?
These are called Splash pages. I personally think such splash pages should be avoided. PR counts a lot for these pages as it can get ranking and traffic for the keywords used in the site and title.
Personally, as a user, I really hate seeing these splash pages - it's an extra page I have to go through, yet it has nothing of value on it. If it has flash on it, then I have to wait for it to download, which is just a waste of bandwidth. Getting such a page to rank well probably requires some blackhat techniques... Cryo.
Not only are splash pages horrible for SEO (most of the time), they're just another "click" for the user to make. Why do that to your site? Why make it MORE DIFFICULT for the user to navigate to the meat? I never understood. Most people are just uneducated on the why's they shouldn't have a splash page. The homepage is one of the most important pages as far as your SEO pages are concerned. It's the doorway to all other pages and a good site structure, internal anchor text and site navigation should all be a click away from the homepage...not a splash page.